New SSD - Clean Install - 3 (???) Partitions Created!

Normally I Partition my drives myself using Gparted.
With a Fresh out of the box (Not even formatted) I wanted to see what Win10 would do with the drive.

It created 3 partitions (Which surprised me).
I expected an EFI partition, and the OS partition, but I didn't expect a 450 MB "Recovery Partition" to be created at the very beginning of the drive.



This is a Zenbook (so a UEFI system) UX303UB, 12 GB Ram, i76500U Processor, & an nVidia 940M (with Optimus)

What exactly does Windows 'DO' with this "Recovery" partition, and IF I had partitioned the drive myself with only the EFI System Partition, would Windows 10 Really have cared?
What functionality would I have been out exactly?

Thanks,

Greg

That contains the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). It provides you with advanced boot (try depressing shift key while restarting) options - recovery troubleshooting and others. You may or may not prefer to do without it. Those partitions, along with a 16 MB MSR partition (snugged in between the EFI System Partition and the OS Partition, that you don't see in Disk Management) are part of any standard Win10 clean install to a GPT disk.

You can see all 4 partitions from an elevated (admin) command prompt using the following commands, in sequence:

diskpart
select disk 0
list par

("exit" to leave diskpart)

This WinRE is very useful. It has saved my bacon already a couple of times.

a 16 MB MSR partition (snugged in between the EFI System Partition and the OS Partition, that you don't see in Disk Management) are part of any standard Win10 clean install to a GPT disk.

Thanks Word Man.

IF I had defined my own partitions with Gparted and never created a WinRe partition OR an MSR partition, would windows create them by readjusting the size of the OS partition anyway? (Just wondering how it works)

What is an MSR partition any how?
MSR = ???

Thanks

This WinRE is very useful. It has saved my bacon already a couple of times.

Hi whs,

could the same thing not be accomplished with a USB recovery drive that we create after the install?

Thanks.

Thanks Word Man.

IF I had defined my own partitions with Gparted and never created a WinRe partition OR an MSR partition, would windows create them by readjusting the size of the OS partition anyway? (Just wondering how it works)

What is an MSR partition any how?
MSR = ???

Thanks

It would have created another one.

MSR means microsoft reserved and is a special partition design for future expansion of OS. Just ignore it.

If you delete the 450 mb recovery partition and add the free space to your Windows partition you will gain 0.11% free space on it - just for perspective.

That being said, for me it's because I like my hard drives partitioned the way I want them partitioned - not always the way Microsoft wants them partitioned so I will delete and move partitions around even though I don't gain free space from it.

Hi whs,

could the same thing not be accomplished with a USB recovery drive that we create after the install?

Thanks.

RE is a bit more than that.



Windows Recovery (Repair) Environment (WinRE)

RE is a bit more than that.



Windows Recovery (Repair) Environment (WinRE)

and why can't the recovery drive be used for those same functions?

You try all those functions with the recovery drive and let us know whether that worked.